This is the sixth year in a row that I've had the privilege of attending the US Open, for 2.5 days around the end of the first week. It is always great fun. I like going early in the tournament when there are about 20 matches going on at once, and you are guaranteed to see some great tennis up close on the smaller courts, often with few other spectators, as people tend to flock to the big stadiums with the biggest names. And if you go for the last half of the first week as I do, you can see almost any one of your favorites (except those who lose in the first round and don't play doubles).
I feel we are at the tail end of the greatest era ever in men's tennis, and a weak era on the women's side, despite Serena's greatness. I also feel we may be about to flip the tables in the women's favor, as there are lots of good young women, but there are also several exciting young men out there, so we may simply be in for continued high quality tennis for the foreseeable future.
Despite my believing that the men's side is far more interesting than the women's right now, this year I tried to take in more women's matches and see who's going to be the next set of leaders. In this MeToo year, let's give a higher profile to the women. So the first photos below are all of women, and they make up about half of the gallery.
Since you asked :-). here's my take on the Serena incident in the finals. Clearly some big mistakes were made. But let's start off by recognizing one person who made no mistakes at all, comported herself wonderfully, and suffered very unfairly for the whole thing-- Naomi Osaka. Boy did she play great, not only in the finals, but in the whole tournament. In fact, probably my biggest regret of my whole experience was not seeing her play when I had the chance in the 3rd round. She will be a champion many times over. Now let's turn to Serena. Clearly, she broke the rules once as written when she smashed her racquet, and most probably a second time when she accused the ump of being a liar and a thief, and her coach clearly broke the rule about coaching from the box. So in a purely literal interpretation of the rules, she deserved a warning, a point, and then a game. But from what I've seen over time and what I've read since, I don't think all three were warranted under these circumstances. Let's take them one by one...
Coaching warning. I think either this needs to be called more often and more consistently, or they should get rid of the prohibition. Apparently, it happens pretty often and usually isn't called, and if that's true (big if), then it should not have been called here. But strictly speaking by the rulebook, it was a violation and therefore was justified. What should have happened: best case-- Ramos is attentive but doesn't give warning; if he sees it occurring more than once, he gives warning. However, a second acceptable outcome would have been... a warning is given; Serena vents with some justification, then goes back and focuses on the game and forgets about it, possibly lodging a complaint afterwards. May not have been fair, but Serena could have handled it better.
Racquet smashing. Clearly a violation. Given my opinion above, in best case scenario she would have received a warning here and not lost a point, but since the warning had clearly been given, losing a point was the only possible outcome of this action. What should have happened under the circumstances: Serena vents but gets back to focus on the game.
Verbal abuse. This to me is the hardest one. Just going by the book, Ramos was justified in giving the penalty given what Serena said, and then since he did so, he had to penalize her one game. However, I have heard that he could have given a "soft warning", to say that she is verbally abusive by calling him a liar and a thief, and that unless she desists, he will assess her a game penalty. I don't think he should have sat by and done nothing, but an umpire shouldn't decide a match, and the best umpires are "invisible" so that everything is focused on the players. Ramos should not have become part of the match. What should have happened-- soft warning. Give her a chance to cool down; assess a game penalty if it escalated further.
That is my opinion, since you asked :-).
Final thoughts:
There's all this talk about how sexist and/or racist the punishments were. Probably partly or mostly true. But sorry, this is the wrong cause to fight for. I'm all for equal treatment and prize money, but I'm sorry, "women should be able to be just as abusive as those awful men" just doesn't do it for me as a great argument for equality. Let's use common sense in this, maybe cut a bit a slack where slack is due, but if men really do get away with threatening the umpires with abusive and threatening language, let's stop that rather than encouraging women to do it too. Let common sense rule.
And remember, Naomi Osaka deserved better. Here was a fairy tale ending for her, and she's crying on the victory stand. I personally think she was going to win the match anyway, and now there's at least a bit of doubt about that. To give Serena credit here, I think she realized the unfairness of that and did make an effort to recognize Osaka's achievement. Let's celebrate her great tournament!!
Men's final was great. Djokovic is back, and if Fed and Rafa can hold up and the youngsters keep improving, 2019 will be a fun year!
I feel we are at the tail end of the greatest era ever in men's tennis, and a weak era on the women's side, despite Serena's greatness. I also feel we may be about to flip the tables in the women's favor, as there are lots of good young women, but there are also several exciting young men out there, so we may simply be in for continued high quality tennis for the foreseeable future.
Despite my believing that the men's side is far more interesting than the women's right now, this year I tried to take in more women's matches and see who's going to be the next set of leaders. In this MeToo year, let's give a higher profile to the women. So the first photos below are all of women, and they make up about half of the gallery.
Since you asked :-). here's my take on the Serena incident in the finals. Clearly some big mistakes were made. But let's start off by recognizing one person who made no mistakes at all, comported herself wonderfully, and suffered very unfairly for the whole thing-- Naomi Osaka. Boy did she play great, not only in the finals, but in the whole tournament. In fact, probably my biggest regret of my whole experience was not seeing her play when I had the chance in the 3rd round. She will be a champion many times over. Now let's turn to Serena. Clearly, she broke the rules once as written when she smashed her racquet, and most probably a second time when she accused the ump of being a liar and a thief, and her coach clearly broke the rule about coaching from the box. So in a purely literal interpretation of the rules, she deserved a warning, a point, and then a game. But from what I've seen over time and what I've read since, I don't think all three were warranted under these circumstances. Let's take them one by one...
Coaching warning. I think either this needs to be called more often and more consistently, or they should get rid of the prohibition. Apparently, it happens pretty often and usually isn't called, and if that's true (big if), then it should not have been called here. But strictly speaking by the rulebook, it was a violation and therefore was justified. What should have happened: best case-- Ramos is attentive but doesn't give warning; if he sees it occurring more than once, he gives warning. However, a second acceptable outcome would have been... a warning is given; Serena vents with some justification, then goes back and focuses on the game and forgets about it, possibly lodging a complaint afterwards. May not have been fair, but Serena could have handled it better.
Racquet smashing. Clearly a violation. Given my opinion above, in best case scenario she would have received a warning here and not lost a point, but since the warning had clearly been given, losing a point was the only possible outcome of this action. What should have happened under the circumstances: Serena vents but gets back to focus on the game.
Verbal abuse. This to me is the hardest one. Just going by the book, Ramos was justified in giving the penalty given what Serena said, and then since he did so, he had to penalize her one game. However, I have heard that he could have given a "soft warning", to say that she is verbally abusive by calling him a liar and a thief, and that unless she desists, he will assess her a game penalty. I don't think he should have sat by and done nothing, but an umpire shouldn't decide a match, and the best umpires are "invisible" so that everything is focused on the players. Ramos should not have become part of the match. What should have happened-- soft warning. Give her a chance to cool down; assess a game penalty if it escalated further.
That is my opinion, since you asked :-).
Final thoughts:
There's all this talk about how sexist and/or racist the punishments were. Probably partly or mostly true. But sorry, this is the wrong cause to fight for. I'm all for equal treatment and prize money, but I'm sorry, "women should be able to be just as abusive as those awful men" just doesn't do it for me as a great argument for equality. Let's use common sense in this, maybe cut a bit a slack where slack is due, but if men really do get away with threatening the umpires with abusive and threatening language, let's stop that rather than encouraging women to do it too. Let common sense rule.
And remember, Naomi Osaka deserved better. Here was a fairy tale ending for her, and she's crying on the victory stand. I personally think she was going to win the match anyway, and now there's at least a bit of doubt about that. To give Serena credit here, I think she realized the unfairness of that and did make an effort to recognize Osaka's achievement. Let's celebrate her great tournament!!
Men's final was great. Djokovic is back, and if Fed and Rafa can hold up and the youngsters keep improving, 2019 will be a fun year!
